Keating Five

If you want to see how politics can go wrong, take a look at the hearings that begin today on the relationship of five senators with Charles Keating, the savings and loan high-flier. Mr. Keating's ability to enlist such horsepower as these senators to protect him from S&L regulators cost taxpayers $2 billion. Similar influence-wielding by other financiers may eventually cost us hundreds of billions.The hearings are being conducted by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics. If you have cable television, you can catch them live on C-Span, which begins gavel-to-gavel coverage at 9:30 a.m., or on CNN, which has promised "extensive" coverage, or on the commercial networks and PBS, which will no doubt provide relatively full coverage of the opening day of the proceedings.

EXETER, N.H. -- Sen. John McCain of Arizona, some of whose GOP foes for the presidential nomination have been trying to stop his surge in the polls with tales of his terrible temper, strode onto the stage at Phillips Exeter Academy here the other night without that short fuse anywhere in sight.Smiling benignly and waving to an overflow crowd, he began by noting that three of his fellow Arizonans -- Barry Goldwater, Morris Udall and Bruce Babbitt -- all had sought the presidency before him and lost.

By Tom Webband David Everett and Tom Webband David Everett,Knight-Ridder News Service | November 12, 1990

WASHINGTON -- It is a remarkable cast, now reluctantly about to take center stage in the biggest financial scandal in U.S. history.There's a former astronaut. There's a war hero. There are a Senate Democratic power, a lawyer once considered to head the FBI and the head of the Senate Banking Committee.All five have earned acclaim as senators, but starting this week, the public will see them more harshly -- as "The Keating Five," the men accused of seeking favors for a notorious savings and loan executive who showered them with $1.3 million in political donations.

WASHINGTON -- The decision of Democratic Sen. Don Riegle of Michigan not to seek re-election next year makes him the third of the notorious "Keating Five" to voluntarily step aside. Two other Democratic senators of the five, Alan Cranston and Dennis DeConcini, preceded him in walking away rather than undertaking the hard task of defending their assistance to convicted financier Charles Keating in the savings-and-loan scandal.The three were the most strenuously reprimanded in the Senate investigation and report on the matter, and so their departures represent indirect justice of a sort.

Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii defended the Keating Five this week, saying of those five senators' unprecedented joint pressuring of federal regulators in behalf of a big campaign contributor, "I see nothing improper, possibly vigorous, but not improper." Senator Inouye is a fine man in many respects, but when it comes to ethical judgment of his colleagues, well. . .The last time he was involved in one of these controversies it was as chief defense counsel for Sen. Harrison Williams of New Jersey, who resigned in 1982 hours before he was to be expelled for criminal financial acts.

WASHINGTON -- Looking for a character witness to support him at Senate Ethics Committee hearings, Sen. Dennis DeConcini of Arizona called yesterday on his state's governor, Rose Mofford, who proved more than willing to help her "young" colleague.Governor Mofford, the 68-year-old leader of Arizona's Democrats, told the Senate Ethics Committee that she had known Mr. DeConcini since he was a 10-year-old altar boy at St. Gregory's Roman Catholic Church in Phoenix. And, Governor Mofford said, Mr. DeConcini is still a helpful "young man."

The Senate Ethics Committee appears near a decision on what to do about the Keating Five senators. This case is still in its very early stages. The lengthy committee hearings involving the five senators, their defense lawyers and the committee's special counsel were only the "preliminary inquiry" stage of the affair.At this point the committee chairman and vice chairman could decide on their own to drop the whole thing. If they choose not to do that, the full Ethics Committee could eventually vote to drop the matter, or to recommend a committee-determined "punishment," such as a letter to the senators saying they shouldn't have done what they did.There have been reports from Washington that such a letter is the worst punishment being considered for the four members of the Keating Five who are planning to run for re-election -- Sens.

Senate Ethics Committee hearings on the Keating Five ended on a sad note.The attorney for one of the senators on trial said, "What amazes me is that after one of the finest careers in public service of any man or woman in this country, after standing up for peace and justice for the ordinary people for [over 50 years], now, in the twilight of his career, Alan Cranston must face the accusation either expressed or implied that he became Charles Keating's marionette and single-handedly changed the course of decisions at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board."

WASHINGTON -- The second reporter in as many days refused to reveal his sources yesterday to a Senate investigator searching for the source of leaks about Anita F. Hill's sexual harassment charges against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas and the ethics probe of five senators.Washington Times reporter Paul M. Rodriguez spent 2 1/2 hours before special counsel Peter E. Fleming Jr., who pressed him to disclose the sources of his stories about the ethics investigation of five senators and their relationship with savings and loan executive Charles H. Keating Jr."

The first of "the Keating Five" senators, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., went before the Senate Ethics Committee yesterday to be cross-examined by committee members and counsel. It was not a pretty spectacle, and it suggests much uglier business next week.Senator McCain and Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, who also testified yesterday, appear to be the least culpable of the five senators accused of improperly influencing government regulators on behalf of financier Charles Keating. Robert S. Bennett, the Ethics Committee counsel, has recommended that the committee drop charges against the two.Yet consider one exchange yesterday between Senator McCain and Ethics Committee Chairman Howell Heflin, D-Ala.

WASHINGTON -- The second reporter in as many days refused to reveal his sources yesterday to a Senate investigator searching for the source of leaks about Anita F. Hill's sexual harassment charges against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas and the ethics probe of five senators.Washington Times reporter Paul M. Rodriguez spent 2 1/2 hours before special counsel Peter E. Fleming Jr., who pressed him to disclose the sources of his stories about the ethics investigation of five senators and their relationship with savings and loan executive Charles H. Keating Jr."

WASHINGTON -- A possible constitutional conflict between the press and the Senate will begin tomorrow morning, when a reporter refuses to tell a special prosecutor who leaked him Anita Hill's sexual harassment charges against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas."

By Peter Osterlund and Peter Osterlund,Washington Bureau of The Sun | March 3, 1991

WASHINGTON -- Pundits once billed the Keating scandal as a kind of electroshock therapy for the U.S. Senate -- something that would force chastened lawmakers to reform the campaign finance process.By all appearances, the pundits are wrong again.The charges against the "Keating Five" senators were grave -- selling their influence with federal regulators to a failing savings and loan operator, Charles H. Keating Jr., in exchange for large campaign contributions.Nevertheless, four of them escaped with what one dissatisfied senator termed a "tap on the pinky."

By Peter Osterlund and Peter Osterlund,Washington Bureau of The Sun | February 28, 1991

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Ethics Committee closed a chapter on one of Congress' longest-running scandals yesterday when it announced it had found "substantial credible evidence" that Sen. Alan Cranston, D-Calif., acted improperly in his relationship with former S&L kingpin Charles H. Keating Jr.Mr. Cranston faces the prospect of formal censure on the Senate floor, if the committee recommends such action after it has given him a chance to respond to its charges.At the same time, the panel decided yesterday that no further action was warranted against the other four members of the so-called Keating Five -- senators accused of intervening with banking regulators during Mr. Keating's protracted struggle to win favorable federal treatment for his failing thrift.

The Senate Ethics Committee appears near a decision on what to do about the Keating Five senators. This case is still in its very early stages. The lengthy committee hearings involving the five senators, their defense lawyers and the committee's special counsel were only the "preliminary inquiry" stage of the affair.At this point the committee chairman and vice chairman could decide on their own to drop the whole thing. If they choose not to do that, the full Ethics Committee could eventually vote to drop the matter, or to recommend a committee-determined "punishment," such as a letter to the senators saying they shouldn't have done what they did.There have been reports from Washington that such a letter is the worst punishment being considered for the four members of the Keating Five who are planning to run for re-election -- Sens.

Senate Ethics Committee hearings on the Keating Five ended on a sad note.The attorney for one of the senators on trial said, "What amazes me is that after one of the finest careers in public service of any man or woman in this country, after standing up for peace and justice for the ordinary people for [over 50 years], now, in the twilight of his career, Alan Cranston must face the accusation either expressed or implied that he became Charles Keating's marionette and single-handedly changed the course of decisions at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board."

WASHINGTON -- Although Daniel Inouye is one of the Senate's most respected members, his defense of the Keating Five is not likely to -- and should not -- prove persuasive with the Senate Ethics Committee. The Hawaii Democrat has defended embattled colleagues in the past, and he conceded he had not read the details of the case against the five senators accused of using undue influence in behalf of Charles H. Keating.But Inouye did strike at the fault line in the case against the Keating Five -- the lack of clear Senate standards that define acceptable and unacceptable conduct in objective terms.

WASHINGTON -- A possible constitutional conflict between the press and the Senate will begin tomorrow morning, when a reporter refuses to tell a special prosecutor who leaked him Anita Hill's sexual harassment charges against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas."

The first of "the Keating Five" senators, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., went before the Senate Ethics Committee yesterday to be cross-examined by committee members and counsel. It was not a pretty spectacle, and it suggests much uglier business next week.Senator McCain and Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, who also testified yesterday, appear to be the least culpable of the five senators accused of improperly influencing government regulators on behalf of financier Charles Keating. Robert S. Bennett, the Ethics Committee counsel, has recommended that the committee drop charges against the two.Yet consider one exchange yesterday between Senator McCain and Ethics Committee Chairman Howell Heflin, D-Ala.

Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii defended the Keating Five this week, saying of those five senators' unprecedented joint pressuring of federal regulators in behalf of a big campaign contributor, "I see nothing improper, possibly vigorous, but not improper." Senator Inouye is a fine man in many respects, but when it comes to ethical judgment of his colleagues, well. . .The last time he was involved in one of these controversies it was as chief defense counsel for Sen. Harrison Williams of New Jersey, who resigned in 1982 hours before he was to be expelled for criminal financial acts.